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Day Three, Four and Five - cut for the uninterested:
Day Three:
Up early and driving out to Bandelier National Monument and Park. Sixteen people in four cars, we wound our way up I-285 to 502 and through Los Alamos and into Frijoles Canyon. We walked the Main Loop Trail (1.5 miles - mostly easy) up and down the stairs they had cut into the Tuff (volcanic rock - dotted with erosion holes so the cliffs looked like swiss cheese) and ladders so we could peek into the ancestral pueblo dwellings of the people who lived in the area between about 1100-1500.
Some took off up the trail towards the Juniper Camp ground, and others (including me) hiked the extra mile or so the Alcove House, which used to be called the Ceremonial Cave. 140 feet straight up on ladders (and me with a fear of heights!) and we could look down into Frijoles Canyon from a wide and tall shelf carved into the volcanic rock. They had preserved and reconstructed a kiva, adobe roof and all, and we could climb down into it via a short wooden ladder. Going down the cliff ladders was more freaksome than going up- but I was triumphant in my return to solid ground. Alcove House was first thought to be a place of religious significance - but now believed to have housed a family village of about 20-30 people.
The walk back to the visitor's center was pretty, and mostly shaded on that side of the canyon, which was nice, since the first part of the walk was in unrelenting sunshine.
We ate at the park snack bar (food and cold drink never tasted so good!), and returned to Santa Fe and toodled around the Plaza in front of the Palace of the Governers for the rest of the afternoon. I purchased some absolutely gorgeous Zuni-artist made jewelry.
We ordered pizza at the hotel and sat and talked far into the night.
Day Four - the Ghost Towns that weren't...
On the search for ghost towns we found Cerrillos, and it's petting zoo/trading post/turquoise mining museum. Paid a buck to get into the four rooms filled with junk from the mine and the area used from the 1700s through what looked like the first half of the twentieth century. Someone went and dug up a trash pit, put it on display and called it a museum! It was tres cool.
We spent an hour poking about, feeding the goats and llama, and got back onto the road headed south on the Turquoise Trail.
Stopped in Madrid (pronounced MA-drid) and some of us shopped the little gallerys and shops lining the peaceful main street and some of us paid a piddling amount and went into the Mineshaft Museum - which was a series of buildings that were filled with old stuff from the mining community in the town. The old jail (an eight by eight by six concrete cell with two tiny windows and a big steel door), an A.T.& S.F. rail road engine. The carpenter shop filled with old tools and gears and things. A storage shed filled with antiquated medical equipment that looked rather sadistic.
We had lunch at the Mineshaft Tavern, equal parts tourist pub, locals, and bikers. For once, we weren't the loudest group in the place. Pretty good food, great atmosphere, and a tiny girl-child dressed in lavender and pink who ran through the place like she owned it. She belonged to a huge bear of a man dressed in black leather with a pierced nose and many tattoos. A study in contrasts.
We trundled back into the cars and drove back to Santa Fe so we could see the Palace of the Governers (the stage coach, or Mud Wagon as it was called, and the display of three hundred years of weapons used int eh area were the best bits of the museum). And we also went to the Loretto Chapel to see the Mysterious Staircase - which you can't really describe well enough to do it justice. A spiral, wooden staircase that was built with no center support, and from the most primitive tools - it wends its way with two complete three-sixty degree turns from the floor of the chapel to the choir loft. Built in the 1870's it is amazingly engineered and gorgeous. For more on the miraculous staircase (pictures included you can go here: http://www.lorettochapel.com/stair.html.
More shopping and hanging about in the Plaza and we went off to have dinner our final night outside of town about forty minutes to a restaurant on the banks of the Rio Grande - where we started the journey. I thought it was a fitting end, and the food was delicious, the company sublime. Again a late night, as no one wanted the vacation to end.
Day Five, saying goodbye:
By the time I got up the next morning the first carload of people had gone back to Albuquerque to catch their flights. Two cars (mine included) left Santa Fe around nine thirty and drove straight to the airport, where we hung out together and waited for our flights. One by one we lef the group. I was the third to the last to go, as my flight was at 2:10.
The first flight sucked as I was next to a crying, cranky baby that spilled food (half chewed goldfish crackers and the like) and formula on me. The second flight was calmer (and cleaner!). I arrived home after midnight (but not by much!), exhausted, but happy and fell into bed.
So that was my adventures in New Mexico - gorgeous country, nice people, and the roads are smooth and clear. Getting back to the pot-holey Northeast was a shock. And the heat and humidity was a surprise as well, since when I left last week it was all of 52 degrees out. Ah, well. I am settling back into my routine well.
Day Three:
Up early and driving out to Bandelier National Monument and Park. Sixteen people in four cars, we wound our way up I-285 to 502 and through Los Alamos and into Frijoles Canyon. We walked the Main Loop Trail (1.5 miles - mostly easy) up and down the stairs they had cut into the Tuff (volcanic rock - dotted with erosion holes so the cliffs looked like swiss cheese) and ladders so we could peek into the ancestral pueblo dwellings of the people who lived in the area between about 1100-1500.
Some took off up the trail towards the Juniper Camp ground, and others (including me) hiked the extra mile or so the Alcove House, which used to be called the Ceremonial Cave. 140 feet straight up on ladders (and me with a fear of heights!) and we could look down into Frijoles Canyon from a wide and tall shelf carved into the volcanic rock. They had preserved and reconstructed a kiva, adobe roof and all, and we could climb down into it via a short wooden ladder. Going down the cliff ladders was more freaksome than going up- but I was triumphant in my return to solid ground. Alcove House was first thought to be a place of religious significance - but now believed to have housed a family village of about 20-30 people.
The walk back to the visitor's center was pretty, and mostly shaded on that side of the canyon, which was nice, since the first part of the walk was in unrelenting sunshine.
We ate at the park snack bar (food and cold drink never tasted so good!), and returned to Santa Fe and toodled around the Plaza in front of the Palace of the Governers for the rest of the afternoon. I purchased some absolutely gorgeous Zuni-artist made jewelry.
We ordered pizza at the hotel and sat and talked far into the night.
Day Four - the Ghost Towns that weren't...
On the search for ghost towns we found Cerrillos, and it's petting zoo/trading post/turquoise mining museum. Paid a buck to get into the four rooms filled with junk from the mine and the area used from the 1700s through what looked like the first half of the twentieth century. Someone went and dug up a trash pit, put it on display and called it a museum! It was tres cool.
We spent an hour poking about, feeding the goats and llama, and got back onto the road headed south on the Turquoise Trail.
Stopped in Madrid (pronounced MA-drid) and some of us shopped the little gallerys and shops lining the peaceful main street and some of us paid a piddling amount and went into the Mineshaft Museum - which was a series of buildings that were filled with old stuff from the mining community in the town. The old jail (an eight by eight by six concrete cell with two tiny windows and a big steel door), an A.T.& S.F. rail road engine. The carpenter shop filled with old tools and gears and things. A storage shed filled with antiquated medical equipment that looked rather sadistic.
We had lunch at the Mineshaft Tavern, equal parts tourist pub, locals, and bikers. For once, we weren't the loudest group in the place. Pretty good food, great atmosphere, and a tiny girl-child dressed in lavender and pink who ran through the place like she owned it. She belonged to a huge bear of a man dressed in black leather with a pierced nose and many tattoos. A study in contrasts.
We trundled back into the cars and drove back to Santa Fe so we could see the Palace of the Governers (the stage coach, or Mud Wagon as it was called, and the display of three hundred years of weapons used int eh area were the best bits of the museum). And we also went to the Loretto Chapel to see the Mysterious Staircase - which you can't really describe well enough to do it justice. A spiral, wooden staircase that was built with no center support, and from the most primitive tools - it wends its way with two complete three-sixty degree turns from the floor of the chapel to the choir loft. Built in the 1870's it is amazingly engineered and gorgeous. For more on the miraculous staircase (pictures included you can go here: http://www.lorettochapel.com/stair.html.
More shopping and hanging about in the Plaza and we went off to have dinner our final night outside of town about forty minutes to a restaurant on the banks of the Rio Grande - where we started the journey. I thought it was a fitting end, and the food was delicious, the company sublime. Again a late night, as no one wanted the vacation to end.
Day Five, saying goodbye:
By the time I got up the next morning the first carload of people had gone back to Albuquerque to catch their flights. Two cars (mine included) left Santa Fe around nine thirty and drove straight to the airport, where we hung out together and waited for our flights. One by one we lef the group. I was the third to the last to go, as my flight was at 2:10.
The first flight sucked as I was next to a crying, cranky baby that spilled food (half chewed goldfish crackers and the like) and formula on me. The second flight was calmer (and cleaner!). I arrived home after midnight (but not by much!), exhausted, but happy and fell into bed.
So that was my adventures in New Mexico - gorgeous country, nice people, and the roads are smooth and clear. Getting back to the pot-holey Northeast was a shock. And the heat and humidity was a surprise as well, since when I left last week it was all of 52 degrees out. Ah, well. I am settling back into my routine well.
